Overview

The
Environmental Management and Pollution Control (Environmental Licences) Regulations 2019 have been made under the
Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994 (EMPCA) to support various provisions of EMPCA which relate to finfish farming, which were inserted by the
Finfish Farming Environmental Regulation Act 2017. A key feature of the finfish farming provisions is the environmental licence instrument. Environmental licences will in future be used to regulate all finfish farming activities.​

Legislation Online

Provisions

Provisions of the Environmental Licences Regulations include:

A special penalty for the contravention of environmental licence conditions relating to the rate of dissolved nitrogen output from a fish farming activity (similar to the special penalty prescribed under Marine Farming Planning Regulations 2016) ​- for EMPCA section 42C(5);

The number of days before a fixed-term licence expires by which an application for renewal must be lodged - for EMPCA section 42S(2);

criteria for the determination by the Director on whether or not to refer an environmental licence application or licence variation application (relating to a marine farming activity) to the Board for assessment - for EMPCA sections 42I(3) and 42O(2).

Development of the Regulations

The Environmental Licences Regulations were made in accordance with the Subordinate Legislation Act 1992. It was determined that regulatory impact assessment and public consultation were not a statutory requirement for the Regulations, but the Minister for Environment decided that a draft of the Regulations would be made publicly available for comment. This took place in June 2018. Seven submissions were received and taken into account when the Regulations were finalised.

The Regulations were made by the Governor on 8 April 2019 and were notified in the Gazette on 17 April 2019.